It was in the late 1980s, and I had just moved from Edmonton to work at the Gazette. On my second day at the office, a regal woman swept by, an assistant and a photographer in her retinue. She was clad all in black, she had severely coiffed short grey hair and enormous round black glasses.

“That’s Iona Monahan!” one of my new colleagues hissed, as if she needed no introduction.

She didn’t, to anyone who knew anything about style in Canada. Monahan had already been named one of 20 Great Montrealers for her role in raising awareness of fashion in Canada, and she was about to be invested as a member of the Order of Canada.

To someone who already felt like a country mouse in a very big city, she was the epitome of elegance — an impression that lasted until Monahan, perpetually in black with those owl-eye glasses, retired in 2002 after more than 50 years in the world of fashion.

Now, 10 years after her death, the city is honouring Monahan with a square named after her in Montreal’s fashion district.

Place Iona Monahan will be inaugurated Thursday at the corner of Chabanel St. and Esplanade Ave. Presiding over the ceremony will be Ahuntsic-Cartierville mayor Pierre Gagnier and Liberal MP Mélanie Joly, who represents the federal riding that is home to the fashion district.

The square is welcome recognition of a pioneering Montreal journalist and fashion champion. It’s also part of an initiative to address a gap in the cityscape: a vast underrepresentation of women.

In the run-up to Montreal’s 375th anniversary next year, municipal officials observed that only six per cent of the 6,000 named locations in Montreal — streets, parks, public spaces — acknowledged the achievements of women. More than 50 per cent were named for men; the rest honour families or are gender neutral — named for flowers or trees, for instance.

The administration of Mayor Denis Coderre launched an initiative to find 375 names of women who deserve recognition on city maps.

“Montreal society is one of the most egalitarian in the world,” Coderre told my colleague Graeme Hamilton earlier this year. “We want this to be better reflected in our toponymy.”

From humble beginnings in working-class Point St. Charles, Iona Monahan ended up on a first-name basis with designers like Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Issey Miyake and Sonia Rykiel. (Gazette files)

Monahan is an admirable addition. Born in 1923, she began her career at Eaton’s department store, where she became couture buyer for the entire chain at the age of 21. By 1947, she was working for a commercial photographer, directing fashion shoots and producing fashion shows.

By 1959, she had stopped creating fashion and began chronicling it. That year, she produced a feature about the Canadian scene for Mayfair, an elite fashion magazine, that is widely acknowledged as putting this country on the international fashion map.

Monahan went on to work at the Montreal Star for a decade until she joined the staff of the Gazette in 1978. She worked here for the next quarter century, retiring in 2002 after one last trip to Paris to cover the runway shows for this newspaper.

There is so much that is right about recognizing Monahan’s contributions.

She became an internationally recognized female journalist at a time when newsrooms were hard-drinking, chain-smoking, pub-brawling male-dominated precincts.

From humble beginnings in working-class Point St-Charles she ended up on a first-name basis with designers like Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Issey Miyake and Sonia Rykiel.

She championed Canadian fashion and designers like Marie Saint Pierre, who was instrumental in the movement to recognize Monahan’s contributions.

And it will be nice to see an anglophone name returning to the street signs of a community where many have disappeared.

Monahan, who died in March 2006, would have loved the tribute. Beneath that imperious public bearing — she was called “the Dragon Lady” by some who ran afoul of her uncompromising approach — was an unpretentious woman with a soft voice who would sometimes emit a surprising girlish giggle when amused.

Sadly Monahan’s husband Hy Waxman will not be there for the celebration. He died in June. He and Iona were predeceased by a daughter, Maggie. Their other daughter, Katherine, and granddaughter Holly are expected to attend.

Place Iona Monahan will be inaugurated with a ceremony at noon Thursday at the corner of Chabanel St. and Esplanade Ave. In case of rain, the ceremony will take place Friday at noon.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.